South Africa's earliest irrigation experts hailed from the region. The local economy came to be based primarily upon tobacco and ostrich farming. A severe drought in 1865 persuaded many of the settlers to move to the Transvaal. The 1865 census indicated that Oudtshoorn had a population of 1,145.

Ostrich farming

First Ostrich Boom

thumbOudtshoorn's ostrich industry dates back to 1864. The main reason for the

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